Ontario sees balanced budget by 2017, helped by low loonie and weak oil

Theglobeandmail.com
Aug. 4, 2016
By Reuters

The Canadian province of Ontario, one of the world’s largest sub-sovereign borrowers, is on track to balance its budget in the 2017-18 fiscal year, the provincial government said on Thursday.

Canada’s most populous province, which accounts for about 40 per cent of the country’s economy, also said it expects to run a deficit of $4.3 billion in 2016-2017.

Both projections were in line with the budget it presented in February, before events like Britain’s vote to leave the European Union helped spur financial market volatility.

Ontario’s net debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio is expected to peak at 39.6 per cent in 2015-16, remain level in 2016-17 and begin trending downward in 2017-18, the government said.

The province, home to Canada’s major auto manufacturing plants, is reaping the benefit of lower oil prices and a weak Canadian dollar even as other parts of the country suffer from a commodity slump.